Category Archives: Cape Town

Better view with the naked eye: My camera only managed to capture this crooked looking full moon…

This full moon had been building up over the last couple of days and because Cape Town has such clear air, the visibility of it is amazing.

From the dog park the views over Cape Town, Table Mountain and the Harbour are stunning. But yesterday night the moon outshone all of that: Huge and massive it rose over the Hottentots Holland Mountains, so close to earth, as if it was possible to pluck it from the sky.

Because of the angle of the moon to the earth, in South Africa it looks like a bunny sits in the crescent rather than the face of the ‘man in the moon’. The detail was incredible. Fat and round sat the moon like a big cheese looking down from heaven. The moonlight was so bright, it lit up the scenery in a silver shimmer.

The more astonished I was to see this wonderful full moon crooked by the time I showed it to my husband at home.

I blinked my eyes, and then some more, because there was something covering the moon.

The night sky was clear and the wind was still strong, so it couldn’t be a cloud.

It puzzled my brain: I knew we had a full moon, yet, I couldn’t see it because it was partially blocked, by what?

A quick Google search revealed that it was earth’s shadow, creating a partial lunar eclipse, visible from Cape Town at excellent conditions.

I’m not Christian, so I was wondering what the meaning of the cross actually is, and came across this:

The Latin Cross

also called the Roman, Protestant, Western or Plain Cross

The Latin cross (crux ordinaria) is a stipe (upright post) with a patibulum (horizontal beam) inserted at right-angles. It is a symbol of Christianity even though it was used as a Pagan symbol for millennia before the foundation of the Christian Church.

As a Pagan symbol it has been found in China and African countries. It appears on Scandinavian Bronze Age stones depicting the destructive hammer of Thor, their god of thunder and war. It is regarded a magical symbol, bringing good luck and diverting evil. Rock carvings of the cross have been interpreted as a solar symbol, or a symbol of earth with its points representing north, south, east, and west.

To alchemists, the cross was a symbol of the four ‘classical elements’: air, earth, fire, water. Elsewhere, the cross variously symbolised health, fertility, life, immortality, the union of heaven and earth, spirit and matter, the sun and the stars.

Share this:

Like this:

#MoopSwoop Find: Seed packets that flew into our courtyard. Thanks for that, this will grow nicely in our garden. 🙂

This was odd: I didn’t realise at first these seed packets were #MoopSwoop finds, because my husband had just been given some by his brother and I thought the Woodstock wind had somehow gotten hold of and dispersed them.

But when I showed my husband the salvaged seed packets, he said they were not his.

So, whoever lost or dumped these seed packets: They made it safe and sound into our courtyard and will surely be of good use in our urban garden.